The purpose of this blog is to explore different places that spirituality intersects my daily life; from what it truly means to LOVE your neighbor all the way to how the newest movie,song,or tv show that I have experienced confronts spirituality rather intended or not.

About Me

I LOVE God, I have been married for 5 years to a wonderful woman, I am a recent college graduate of Lakeland college with a degree in Religious Studies,I have currently foregone going to Seminary, but feel called to work with teens and young adults and do so at my local church, Vineyard CC, in Grafton, WI.

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Monday, January 7, 2013

New Year, New Creation, New Purpose, or why you should look at the Green Lantern to learn about what faith can mean

With the new year upon
us, seven days in to be exact, I was asked to write on my thoughts about “New
Creation, kainos ktisisf” and for reference I was offered 2 Corinthians
5. Well I have to say after reading this
chapter I can’t help but get caught up on the fact that it reads like stereo
instructions. The problem with this is, if you’re like me, you skip the written
instructions and go right to the diagram and the bible doesn't come with
diagrams. In this case, I am in luck, as this chapter does have a diagram, 2
Corinthians 5: 17, the famous, or infamous; “if anyone is in Christ there is a
new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!”
This diagram is not as easy to read as stereo diagrams and I feel leaves a lot
to be desired when it comes to understanding our relationship with the Holy
Trinity. Why would any creator, create its creation and then tell them that
they have to be more then what they were created to be; while at the same time
saying that the creation must seek out the creator in order for this upgrade to
an acceptable form? This brings to mind the image of early 90’s video games
such as Super Mario Bros. or Mega Man, where Mario or Mega were incapable of
completing their quests without upgrades, such as mushrooms that made you large
enough to crush everything, or a feather that turned you into a raccoon that
could fly, or a new more powerful weapon that allowed you to destroy the evil
machines blocking your path to your creator. In any case you just weren't good
enough without the upgrade and your creator or princess or whatever was just so
far away from you and removed the quest that you were actually on!

I have never been able to really buy
this video game imagery of what it means to be in Christ and become a new
creation because if you have ever played any of these games what happens if you
are on mushroom power and something bad happens? Well, you shrink back into
your original form and you must be very careful about what you do, so that you
do not lose your life, else you will be forced to start the whole level over
again. Let me tell you, this happened to me more times than not and really,
this is what happens to us in our spiritual lives as well, wouldn't you agree?
We are riding a spiritual high, having the power of the Holy Spirit backing our
moves, things are going right left and right and then we make a stupid move or
we have something go wrong, a death, lose a job, ect. ect. and then the
questioning of God’s role(s) in our life happen and doubt sets in and sure
enough we have shrunken back down to the form we were before our spiritual
upgrade, but in truth, were we ever super-sized to begin with? What changed, our
perception, the things happening around us? Did God suddenly forsake us because
we were human and made a stupid decision or take our loved one as a cruel
punishment for something we were un-repentant about? What a petty small god, truly
a god of Roman or Greek acclaim, wouldn't you agree? Still, Paul seems to push
this idea of becoming something better then what you were when you are in
Christ. While I disagree with the idea of suddenly being something better, I do
agree with Paul’s summation point that being in Christ means that we no longer
need to be reconciled to God, but instead we are those who are now charged with
reconciling the other to God. Simplifying the chapter down to Paul’s
summation point makes more sense than the diagram sentence. This point charges
us with a new mission for our life without specifically telling us how to go
about it or raising the bar for our actions to a level that is disparaging and
causes you to just want to not play the game. Simply, it says, now that you are
in Christ, you have become a minister to those around you. After all, didn't Christ come and suffer as human to demonstrate how to bring us back into right
relationship with God the creator, with each other, and with creation? With
that in mind, to be in Christ, or to act in a Christ like way would mean that
we act toward bringing others back into right relationship with God, with each
other, and with creation. Now, in a small way, at least when it comes to your thought
process(es) a change does/may occur, depending on those things that you put
priority in before accepting this call. That is where my understanding of
becoming a new creation ends paralleling Paul’s stereo instructions. He is
overly concerned with that which is beyond it is frustrating to think that such
a prolific authority could be so distracted with what was beyond, after all didn't Jesus say bring that he would bring the kingdom of God to humanity? If
we act as Christ and Christ acted in a manner to bring the kingdom to humanity
then it is fair to say that by accepting a call to bring humanity back into
right relationship is to bring the kingdom to humanity, not prepare humanity
for the kingdom. All of the talk about that which is beyond puts too much
stress on a need for perfection, for preparing our souls to be in the presence
of God, but God sought us out. God became a man and lived as a human, suffered
as a human, and died as a human, so why do we concern ourselves with this
notion of being more then what God created us to be, in some search for
absolute, everlasting perfection? In my opinion our flesh can never be perfect
and our souls already are. I look at being a new creation in Christ
like the Green Lantern. Hal Jordan was a reliable/unreliable guy with the best
of intentions and all the courage in the world. He was flawed and when he
accepted the call to be a Lantern those flaws did not change. He is often made
fun of for those flaws. However, what changed for Hal was his purpose and
calling. He now had a new focus and new knowledge, but he was still the same
Hal Jordan. Now I chose this imagery over the video game imagery earlier
because even though Hal got a ring and “super-ed” up, the powers of the Lantern
only amplify the abilities and qualities with in the ring bearer. They did not
change who Hal was, they did not make him invincible; what they did do was change
his priorities, so that he could bring things back into right relationship from
their broken or threatened state. When we chose to be in Christ, live
as Christ, have faith in Christ we find a change of priorities within our
world. We do not suddenly stop speaking the same way or become a perfect
replica of ourselves, without any flaws. We stay ourselves, but we embrace a
calling to work towards bringing humanity into right relationship with God,
each other, and creation. This can be done in so many ways. I love what Frederick
Buechner had to say about a calling. He said, “The
place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s
deep hunger meet.” Even here, you do not need to change who you are to answer
your calling, for your calling intersects who you are with a need. My idea of a
new creation does not need to focus on our soul or the afterlife because our
soul, in my opinion, is that part of the creator that lives within each of us
and is perfect without need of change.

With
the new year upon us many of you may have made resolutions to change things
about yourself that you don’t like, may be quit a bad habit you picked up along
the way, lose some weight, or maybe even gain some weight. Whatever it may be
those changes will not change who you are or who you were created to be. They
might make you feel better about yourself, but they will not change who you
are. Like a new year’s resolution becoming a new creation in Christ does not
change who you are, it does not prepare your soul for the afterlife, but what
it does do is create a new focus for who you already are, a new purpose for all
your talents and flaws and that is to help God in bringing humanity back into
right relationship with God, each other, and creation.

3 comments:

Interesting post. It was difficult to follow the video game logic (mainly because I'm not a techy myself). When I read 2 Corinthians 5:17 last - I pictured someone wearing a ratty old t-shirt with holes all over. This person's idea for making a "new" shirt was to go get a brand new t-shirt, cut it into pieces, then sew them onto the old shirt. They then walked around telling people, "HEY LOOK AT MY NEW SHIRT" (which was simply the old one with patches on it).

So in my mind, I viewed that person as someone who knowingly and willing continued in a life that does not entirely glorify God. They were choosing only bits and pieces of following Jesus, but they weren't giving Jesus their whole, well, t-shirt in this case. Not to mention, think about how much this ratty t-shirt would stink, and smell. He or She "called" it a new t-shirt, but you couldn't get away from all the bad effects of the old shirt DESPITE it being "new." (You could think of the smell as all the pains of not following God, pains of your sin, etc.)

Well, Jesus doesn't want us to wear a stinky, ratty t-shirt with new patches on. He wants to put on a completely FRESH, BRAND NEW T-shirt. He doesn't want us to be bogged down with our past transgressions (i.e. stink from the t-shirt). He wants to wipe our sins clean. He wants us to be made NEW in Him. I find it refreshing knowing I don't have to dwell on my past mistakes. My life would be horrible if I had to continue wearing a rotten t-shirt that reminded me of the numerous ways I chose to disobey God.

So in my mind, I can think of 2 Corinthians 5:17 as a parallel passage to

“Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool. – Isaiah 1:18

or

Hebrews 10:17

Where Jesus says he will remember our sins no more.

If we give our life to Jesus, ask for forgiveness, then our "old" is gone... or "sin" is gone. We are made new in Him.

This is a very good reply and I like the way you think about this verse and the idea of "New Creation." I have two push backs that I would like your thoughts on. Firstly, to use your analogy of the t-shirt, how is the person wearing the shirt any different with a clean shirt, unless they themselves have been given a bath? They still smell, even if their shirt doesn't. That was the point I was trying to illustrate, that to live in Christ is not to just wear a clean shirt to cover our "stinky-ness," its more like finding a shelter that helps you find a job and get back on your feet, where you then turn around and become a spokes person for that shelter.

My last point I would like to throw out there is, Hebrews 10:17 I think is a beautiful verse. It speaks to how it is not up to us to make our way in this world alone, right relationship is not something achieved alone, but with the help of Christ. In that regard then, when we ask for forgiveness and the old dirt is washed from us and allowed to be emptied down the drain, it is no more longer on us, but once we step out of that shower, we are still the same person. We are not new, but we feel refreshed and healthier, we become a billboard for our shower, we talk about how great it made us feel, but it did not change who we are down to our core and at the end of the day, we are going to need another shower. Think about how many times you have to clean your child during a day and no matter how many times you clean, your child still gets dirty.

I hope this helps clarify my thoughts and I look forward to any further thoughts you may have on these. :)

I am so glad you are feeling better in yourself; that's the most important thing after all, health, wellbeing, general levels of satisfaction and all that.

You wrote: 'Now I will be more relaxed and just let everything flow out of me, whatever comes to mind I will write just as I do on my blog.' Exactly! Write exactly the way you want to do, develop your own voice and perhaps write it as you would say it; that's what I do anyway. But certainly enjoy it; that's also an important thing too. Who knows, you might come up with an idea that becomes successful. And you won't feel guilty about wasting time anymore either.Read more